MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCHIt was at college that Ron Gilbert met his true love, the Commodore 64. The love for computer games, and the freedom they can give players to make their own choices and decisions came from a more unlikely source, a Texas Instruments Calculator. The love of a good story and the innate sense of wonder, escapism, and adventure came from viewing Star Wars for the first time in theatres. And these two passions came from very different sources. As a teenager Ron Gilbert would express these two passions by spending time with friends making films on a Super-8 camera and then later, coding up games on the early home computer his parents bought. In the late ‘70s, games with stories to tell were more like novels than films. That’s not to say story was completely absent from early games, but the line between a text adventure like Zork and the pill-popping frenzy of Pac-Man is pretty huge. MONKEY SAY, MONKEY DOA love of storytelling and creating games used to be mutually exclusive for many developers, thanks to the technical limitations of early game systems and the popularity of action-centric arcade games. Who are both overshadowed by Keira Knightley's lips. Even though it does feature both Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp. It was as close to fantasy as they could get without entering into a world full or orcs, elves, trolls, and men with long flowing hair and make-up. And with the recent popularity of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a pirate film made sense. As for the creators of the 2003 film? Well, Disney did own the ride. Although the game does feature some version of the latter two. For Ron Gilbert the pirate theme was as close to fantasy as he could get without entering into a world full of orcs, elves, trolls, and men with long flowing hair and make-up. In terms of setting and story though, the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers served as the primary influence alongside other classic pirate-themed films and stories. In the case of The Secret of Monkey Island, series creator Ron Gilbert looked to Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean for inspiration because it was an experience he loved growing up and felt that being able to explore that world and getting to know the characters that lived there was something he always wanted to do.
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